Book recommendation:

The Victorian Internet

We, internet people tend to think of ourselves as a new phenomenon, the first of our kind. Tom Standage's The Victorian Internet proves us wrong. Denial of service, 1337-ness, chat, network love, abbreviations, hubris, tech saints and bad decisions are with us since the birth of the telegraph. It all started with the noise on the wires. The book helps to keep perspective in case of internet or startup bubbles. (It's nice to read John Naughton's A Brief History of the Future as a followup.)